# partial

Pronunciation: say "PAR-shuhl" US /ˈpɑɹʃəl/, UK /ˈpɑːʃəl/

## Adjective

1. Forming only a part or portion of something, and therefore incomplete.
   - Simple: Including only some of a thing, not all of it.
   - _The witness could give only a partial account of what happened._
   - _During a partial eclipse, the moon covers just some of the sun._
2. Favoring one person, side, or point of view unfairly, especially in a competition or dispute.
   - Simple: Unfairly favoring one person or side instead of being fair to everyone.
   - _Critics accused the committee of being partial toward local applicants._
   - _An umpire who is partial to one club quickly loses the league's trust._
3. Having a special liking or preference for something.
   - Simple: Liking something a lot, so you choose it over other things.
   - _My grandfather was partial to a strong cup of coffee each morning._
   - _Travelers who are partial to quiet beaches tend to avoid the resort town._
5. Relating to a partial derivative or partial differential, in which one variable changes while the others are held constant.
   - Simple: Relating to a kind of math that measures change in one variable while the others stay the same.
   - _The equation involves a partial derivative with respect to time._
   - _Engineers solve partial differential equations to model fluid flow._
11. Describing a property that holds only when an algorithm terminates, as in partial correctness.
   - Simple: Describing a property that is true only if a program actually finishes running.
   - _The team verified partial correctness but left termination unproven._
   - _A partial specification promises a correct result only on terminating runs._
12. In botany, describing a subordinate part of a larger compound structure, such as a partial umbel within a compound umbel.
   - Simple: Describing a smaller unit that forms part of a larger, combined plant structure.
   - _A compound umbel is built from several partial umbels, each on its own stalk._
   - _Botanists label the smaller secondary cluster a partial umbel._
14. Of a cryptic crossword clue, having a wordplay element but no definition.
   - Simple: Describing a puzzle clue that has a word-trick part but no meaning part.
   - _Solvers grumbled that the partial clue offered wordplay but no definition to confirm the answer._
   - _A partial clue leaves the solver guessing without a definitional anchor._

## Noun

4. A dental appliance that replaces some but not all of a person's natural teeth.
   - Simple: A set of false teeth that fills in only some missing teeth, not all of them.
   - _After losing two molars, she was fitted for a partial._
   - _The clasps on his partial hook onto the remaining teeth._
6. A derivative taken with respect to one variable of a multivariable function while the other variables are held constant.
   - Simple: A math result showing how a function changes when only one of its variables changes.
   - _She set the partial with respect to y equal to zero to find the critical point._
   - _The gradient is just a vector of the function's partials._
7. Any of the simple sine waves that together make up a complex musical tone, often an overtone or harmonic above the fundamental.
   - Simple: One of the simple sound waves that combine to make a fuller musical note.
   - _A bell's eerie sound comes from partials that aren't simple whole-number multiples of the fundamental._
   - _Tuning software lets you see each partial in the spectrum of a sustained note._
8. An incomplete fingerprint that captures only a portion of the full ridge pattern.
   - Simple: A fingerprint mark that shows only part of the full pattern.
   - _Investigators lifted a partial from the door handle._
   - _The smudged partial matched several points but not enough for a positive identification._
9. An exercise repetition performed through only part of the full range of motion.
   - Simple: A way of doing an exercise using only part of the full movement.
   - _After failing on full reps, she pushed out three partials at the top of the movement._
   - _Coaches sometimes add a partial to overload a specific part of the lift._
10. A reusable fragment of a template containing markup, included within larger templates.
   - Simple: A small reusable piece of a web template, with code, that you can drop into other pages.
   - _The developer extracted the navigation bar into a partial._
   - _Each blog post renders its comment form from a shared partial._
13. A furry costume that covers only part of the wearer's body rather than the whole of it. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A furry-character costume that covers only some of the body, not all of it.
   - _For summer events, many fursuiters prefer a partial over a full suit._
   - _The maker finished the partial with a matching set of paws and a tail._

## Verb

15. To compute the partial regression coefficient, isolating one variable's effect while accounting for the others.
   - Simple: To find how one thing affects another after removing the effects of other things.
   - _Analysts partial out income to see whether education alone predicts the outcome._
   - _The model partials the confounding variable from the correlation entirely._

## Origin

It comes through Middle English "partiall" and Old French "parcial" (meaning biased or particular), from Late Latin "partiālis" (of or pertaining to a part), which came from Latin "pars" (part).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/partial (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).